Remember Me is the latest title from Dontnod Entertainment, and promises to expose users to a world where technology has gone completely haywire. The action-adventure game makes use of platforming, exploration and melee combat, and gamers will be in for a treat.
The title takes place in Paris in the year 2084, a city entirely transformed through technology.
Players will assume the role of Nilin, a memory hunter who aims to bring down a large corporation that has commercialised the storing of memories online– and the removal of unpleasant ones.
But are gamers in for a technological whirl-wind of adventure? Or will it slide into the ‘delete’ pile?
What we like about it
As is the case with most titles that are released, there is a tendency to push the boundaries from a graphics point of view. With Remember Me, the graphics – whilst strong – do not test the computing power that resides within PlayStation and its ability to handle images. The environments are rich in detail and small add-ons do go some way to make the game a bit more believable.
Nillin’s main objective is to defeat any enemy that gets in her way and she accomplishes this rather effectively using a set of combos and powers. Players will have to manage the combos themselves through a series of level-ups, but luckily it is not very difficult to work out.
As for the rest of the button scheme, during the short tutorial it is clear that it will not take a great deal of skill to guide Nillin around the world and to complete tasks, but this simplicity is also what makes the game enjoyable. And she does have some rather impressive powers at her disposal, easily within reach…
One of the most exciting aspects of the title is the ability to remix the memories of her targets. Sadly this cannot be done at will, and there are not nearly enough of these sequences, but it is still highly entertaining. During the Memory Remix, Nillin changes small aspects of a person’s memory to create scenarios that differ vastly from actually occured in reality. This is done for various reasons, but mostly so that people either kill themselves, or other people.
What we did not like about it
While the rest of the game is action-packed, the addition of Memory Remix sequences would have made the title stand out from other third-person action adventures. There are far too few of them and they are incredibly interesting to piece together.
Another area where the game lacks somewhat is combat. Do not get us wrong – the combat works pretty well, but once gamers have filled up their slots of combos, it is really down to simply remembering each one to successfully pull off the attack. It can become a bit repetitive after a while and a bit more variation would have gone a long way.
Going through the levels, navigation and orientation of the narrow alleys and streets of Neo-Paris can become tedious and pedestrian. Gamers will be guided around every turn, where to go, what to jump on and what to swing off of. A bit of room for free-thinking on the player’s part would have been a nice touch, or more of an open-world in which players could explore other options.
Conclusion
Remember Me is something that most gamers might not. While the concept is great (although not something entirely new), the game misses the opportunity to truly stand out. The plot is a bit all over the place, but at least it was accompanied by awesome visuals, an easy combat system and some action-packed sequences.
Our score: 7.8/10
Charlie Fripp – Consumer Tech editor
